Interior Design Student Wins IDA Awards Competition

Interior design student Monica Tabet ’18 earned first place in the 2018 IDA Awards Competition (Student Category) hosted by the Pennsylvania East Chapter of American Society of Interior Designers. She won for Phoenix Rising, a museum dedicated to feminism and domestic violence.

“The idea of the museum is to raise awareness and empathy for people suffering from abuse,” she said. “The ultimate purpose is empowerment, inspiring strength and confidence by portraying the transformation from victim to warrior.”

The user moves through a jagged path of galleries depicting false perceptions of female weakness contributing to the horrors of abuse. At the center, the story concludes by “rising” from the darkness to the empowerment gallery.

“It means a lot to have my work honored by the interior design community, and coming this close to graduation, it also gives me a strong sense of purpose,” Tabet said. “Going forward, I want to keep being worthy of that honor by pushing myself to higher standards of excellence as a professional, something that Jefferson and the program at CABE have definitely prepared me to do.”

Last year, Tabet was part of a student team that won the Interior Design Educators Council East Region Student Design Competition.

Jefferson’s BS in Interior Design program was recently ranked 20th in the country by DesignIntelligence. In addition, the company named Lisa Phillips, assistant professor of interior design at Jefferson, one of the 25 most admired educators for 2017-2018.